Tips

In addition to the wonderful feedback to my post last week about 3 Mistakes You're Making Online, I also received questions about my third point - using Google Alerts to monitor your reputation online. While I know throngs of hyper-connected people for whom using Google Alerts is second nature, the fact is that this is a new tool for many people.

Everybody uses Facebook differently. Just like all of social media, there is no one right way to use it. Still, I'm often asked how I use it. One of the common questions about Facebook concerns friend requests. How to choose which to accept and which to ignore?

Oy, the internet. Must it be so complicated? Can't we all just have fun online and not worry so much? While some people do take that approach, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. If you're reading this, chances are you're active online and chances are you're making one of these mistakes.

Welcome to my shortest blog post ever. The response to my recent post about how to select the right photo for your online profile has been fantastic. I invite you to watch this video to find out...
How you can get valuable feedback on the photo you've chosen for your profile As my friend, Hjortur Smarason says, we should think of this photo as our own personal logo.

The email I received from Gina had a very simple subject line: "Hello." The body of the email was also simple, just a link without any other text. Ugh; spam. I knew immediately what had happened. Somewhere, she had clicked on a malicious link and all of her contacts received the same email.

You know you've seen it. That cringe-worthy photo from your friend's beach vacation that he's using as his LinkedIn profile photo. "What in the world is he thinking?" you asked yourself. "I'd never use a photo like that to represent myself online." Really, Ms. Look-at-me-and-my-super-cute-puppy?

If you grew up with a mother anything like mine, many of your childhood memories include being shushed and reminded to use your inside voice. We had three voices, but the one we heard the most about was our inside voice. Heaven forbid we might say something too loudly and the neighbors would hear! Little did I know these voices would come in handy when thinking about Twitter.

I've been doing a lot of speaking lately. It is a huge compliment to receive so many requests. I am grateful for every one and wish I had time to honor all of them. It's funny; I am extremely introverted, but give me a captive audience and a microphone and I'm in heaven. I love public speaking! Go figure.

Have you ever received an email from someone and their signature block seems to run on forever with so many links that the signature is longer than the email itself? Do you do this yourself? Come on, it's okay to admit it, you're among friends.

I finally gave in. I resisted the call to "upgrade" my profile on Facebook. Calling it an "upgrade" didn't fool me. I heard the buzz and read the complaints. Many of those you moved to the new format weren't happy. I knew, though, that my days of being able to remain on the old profile design were numbered. For the last few days, there has been a message at the top of my Facebook homepage,